FAQ

This is one of the most utterly depressing and difficult to watch
documentaries I have ever seen. Now this isn't to say it isn't
good--it's just that it is rough going watching the film and I really
doubt if most viewers can stick with the entire thing even if it is
only about a half hour long.

The documentary is set in a flop house in the Bowery in New York. This
is a super-seedy hotel where men men lead a meager existence--almost as
if it's just a place to go so you can wait to die. Most of the men are
addicts or gamblers and the place is a filthy and scary mess. However,
despite the grime and depressing aspects of the film, the film makers
do a wonderful job of getting inside the lives of just a few of the
residents. In fact, I really would have like to have seen more lives
profiled despite the utterly dismal tone of much of the film. Seeing
their lives and learning how they got to such a state was oddly
compelling but sad. What made it particularly well done was the way
this was all tied up at the end--showing the Big Onion tour group as
the guide talked about this being one of the last of the Bowery
"hotels" in skid row.

In some ways, I wished I'd seen this film a few weeks earlier, as I was
in the Bowery just two weeks ago and may have even passed the The
Sunshine. I doubt if I would have had the nerve to stop in (especially
after hearing the one guy talk about the bedbugs), but seeing it from
the street would have been interesting.

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